We are safe and sound after almost a week vacation in the Eastern Sierras. We stayed at Rock Creek Lake Resorts (“Resorts” meaning “cabin in the woods”) and took a day trip into Mammoth. There was no tv, computer, no phone access. And yet, we lived! In fact, our family is closer than ever. It’s shocking how much the outside world can smooth the cracks that our husbands and kids can’t fill, but that if we’re not careful, they can also drown us from being in touch with the people we need most in our lives.

I’d like to thank each of you who gave me road trip tips for the kids. I spent about $25.00 in goods from Walmart (I know… shoot me for shopping there… must look into their business model to see if I need to boycott them or not) and about $25.00 on snacks from WholeFoods. It took 7 hours to get there, and there was maybe only two minor arguments. Shockingly, neither napped. They were too excited. But as long as they were happy, I didn’t care.

One of the best things I did, not pictured, was to stop at the library and pick up a few books on tape. My kids are 5 and almost 4, and they adore the Junie B. Jones series. About a mischievous little girl who attends afternoon kindergarten, it is truly funny and something Rex and I found ourselves listening too on the long ride through Mohave. (Ironically, we first heard about Junie B. Jones through the fast food chain, Wendy’s. They gave out the audio book version of Junie B. Jones Has aMonster Under Her Bed last year. It was the best toy we’d ever gotten from those damn artery clogging, commercialized plastic food pushers. Not picking on just Wendy’s. In fact, Wendy’s is one of the best health wise. I have a few small issues with the Junie B. Jones books, but I’ll chat about those another day.)

Well, that’s it! More to come tomorrow. Let me know how you are and what your plans are this summer.

* Photo of the many tricks I packed for our 7 hour trek. THANK YOU everyone!

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Awesome! I have such great memories of camping with my Dad at Rock Creek and fishing at the lake. We would always camp at a campground about halfway up the mountain. DUring the winter, we would ski at Mammoth. Then on 4th of July’s we would go to that lake (Crowley?) which is halfway inbetween. Haven’t been camping in years though. Hubby is not a camper (and I’m probably not at this point of my life anyway) but I loved it when I was little as my Dad was the master camper and cooker.

Glad the trip was great!

79mommy23

I’m glad too that you all had a great time! On Friday we are flying 8 1/2 hours from Germany to NY so I too have to come up with some tricks to fight plane-boredom. I think flying is so much worse than driving because there are other people to worry about and of course you can’t just stop and get out for a breather, lol. I really regret the impulse decision my DH and I made a few weeks ago- we bought a portable DVD player for the trip, and I really think we don’t need it but I can’t return it (can’t not use it either at $200+!!!). I would much rather have my 2 year old do other things but when I thought of all those other passengers I panicked! But I do have tons of other stuff for her to do so maybe just 1 or 2 movies/shows when she gets really antsy will ease my guilt. Our older 2 kids are 12 and 10 so they don’t need so many “tricks”, they have ipods and nintendo ds and books, and today I bought them (to give to them on the plane for a surprise) an awesome dinosaur game book- the book has board pages and each turn of the page is a different 2 or more than 2 player game, all with different dino facts and pics all over the pages too- I know they will love it. Also got them some more pokemon cards to fight over. The 2 year old has new magic-ink books, color wonder activities, books, magnadoodle, crayons, stuffed animal, stickers, snacks…and the DVD player if necessary. While we are in the states I am buying her the new Leapfrog TAG system which I hope and think will take the place of the DVD player for the return trip. Well, wish us luck!

http://desertspor.blogspot.com Arwen

Glad you’re back and that you had a successful trip. We are enjoying our summer here. We probably won’t be going anywhere this year. We are just enjoying having our own backyard to work on and play in.

On the topic of Walmart, I used to believe the whole evil empire thing, but now I see them and other big businesses as successful capitalists. What made me change my mind? Having lived in a couple of towns where the local businesses run the city council and shut out most national chains from coming in. Free of competition, the local businesses are free to charge whatever they want for a product. The lady who ran one of the quilting stores in Grass Valley even admitted to me that all the fabric store owners there would get together and decide who would sell what and for how much so that they weren’t in competition with each other. At first this seemed friendly and neighborly, but after a while living in that economy, I came to realize that an oligopoly is just as bad as a monopoly.

http://www.spriteskeeper.com Jen

You’re ALIVE!
Glad you had a great time! Summer is going to be quiet around here. It’s too hot to expend energy here in Florida, so we’re just going to think about traveling.
See? Right now, I’m in Hawaii, sipping my Mai-Tai and watching my 19 month old play in the sand while my husband watches her so I can nap.
(I’m just going to live vicariously through you, if that’s okay. )

Olivia

Well Andrea…if I’d known that you were coming to my HOME TOWN, I could have given you some great ideas for car trips and things to do while you were in my neck of the woods (no pun intended)! Living here, long car trips with small kids are standard. I don’t have to get too creative for them to be able to deal with it, as it something they have dealt with ever since babyhood. They view every trip out of town as a big adventure, and it helps that they are both great car sleepers!

Arwen – yes, we live in an oligopoly here too! Gas is presently $5.29/gal, and to do a grocery shop costs me about twice as much as it would in a city at that particular evil empire/successful capitalist.

My big trip this summer will be traveling to LA (6 hours) to get on a plane to Australia for 14 hours! I’m a little daunted thinking about it right now…seeing I will be travelling with a 4 year old, a 3 year old and a 6 week old. Thankfully my husband, who had not so graciously declined to go, has now decided that he can’t let his 6 week old daughter be out of his sight for 2 weeks! The idea of wrangling 3 kids through an airport had me scared to death!

http://blogs.parentcenter.babycenter.com/momformation/ Andrea Frazer

Wow, Olivia – good for you! Australia???? With a 6 weeker? I’d love to hear about how that went. Also, how you like living in a small town. I love the Eastern Sierras. But living there? Not sure. I’m too… city oriented. But that’s not necessarily a good thing. Keep in touch!

http://desertspor.blogspot.com Arwen

Can I ask where exactly you live, Olivia? My husband lived in Bishop for a few years when he was a kid.

http://www.singlemomseeking.com Rachel Sarah

Welcome home mama! It’s great to hear about your adventure.

I have some, uh, small issues with Junie B. Jones, too, so I can’t wait to hear that post. Starting with the grammar… Then, there’s that name-calling…

Olivia

Andrea – yes, the Australia trip will be to visit my family…I don’t think anyone on earth, except me, would be crazy enough to attempt that trip for any other reason! Living in a small town was a huge change for me – it definitely took some getting used to! I love it now, and wouldn’t change it for the world. We can’t take things for granted, there is joy in the small things in life, and the kids are growing up with the type of innocence that we did as kids.

Arwen – I won’t say the actual town name, but I live an hour north of Bishop. I’ve seen some beautiful places before, but I really believe that this is God’s country. If anyone has the opportunity to visit the Eastern Sierras and Yosemite, please do it!

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